Babylon 5

Worked. Didn't it.

Reminds me of the Heinleinian concept of ''grokking'' something. Understanding it to the point of achieving unity with it. Typically used in a more positive manner than "you hurt the ones you love". For things that couldn't be grokked, you could always just rotate them 90 degrees from the universe as Valentine Michael Smith was prone to do to troublesome things and mooks.

Very interesting book, that one. Wish I had enjoyed reading it.

edited 11th Jan '17 4:38:47 AM by AFP

Stranger in a Strange Land? Good book. Read it WAY too early in my reading career. Then again I did the same for Sven Hassel's stuff.

Stephen Furst is dead at age 63.

Damn. Poor dude.

That's a bummer.

Aww man...this has been a bad decade for B5 fans...

One of the most fun characters - a supposed, simpering obsequious aide... who turned out to be one of the most morally upright people in the whole setting.

All credit to him as the actor for getting that across.

Also his character was the ONLY one who really got what he wanted from Mr Morden. "And I'm going to wave... like this."

Such a shame.

Vir was indeed my favorite.

Although it's worth noting that even Vir paid a terrible price to get what he wanted. And it's arguable that he never wanted to be Emperor, especially for what that cost to get him there.

Vir never asked to be Emperor. He just asked for Morden's head on a pike.

edited 19th Jun '17 7:38:58 AM by TheHandle

Perhaps him becoming Emperor was simply the price for getting what he wanted.

Wow, and I just watched the finale again yesterday.

RIP.

On the conversation, the wish was "to live just long enough to" yadda yadda yadda. He almost got that part, since he saw Morden on the pike right before the Vorlons were planning on blowing up Centauri Prime. It only got averted because everyone else was clustering near Corianna Six, including the remaining First Ones drawing the attention of the Vorlons and the Shadows.

That's a good point. The only thing that kept Vir from getting his wish to the letter was that Sheridan swung in and threw a great big thermonuclear monkey wrench in everything.

How many human telepaths are there supposed to be on Earth? An early episode gives the rate at 1 in 1000, but that would mean MILLIONS of telepaths. Surely they can't be THAT prevalent, and it would be impossible to regulate such a massive amount of people.

The most likely answer is JMS isn't good at math.

Did they ever say what Earth's population is?

The B5 wiki says 10 billion, so that makes for 10 million telepaths.

Again, JMS probally didn't do the math.

There's also widespread testing for the trait and administration of telepathy-subduing medication or internment in what I assume are specialized prisons for folks with telepathic traits. Most likely there aren't millions of telepaths in the ranks of Psi-Corps. There probably aren't even millions of telepaths with strong enough abilities to do much other than read broadcast thoughts (Ivanova claims to be a weak enough telepath not to even rate P1, and her mother went through great lengths to hide her from the Psi-Corps and their tests. For the most part, Ivanova's abilities seem limited to being able to sense and block low-level telepathic probes and some unexpected effects when docked in the Great Machine.)

Edited by AFP on May 6th 2019 at 2:11:52 AM

That makes a lot more sense. The bulk of telepaths would then effectively be below detection levels except for other telepaths.

That's still a bit murky though. Ivanova said she's not even a P1, but that it's 'still enough for the Psi-Corps to reel you in'. You'd think if most telepaths that weak were undetectable by anyone but Psi-Corp they wouldn't even care, but apparently they do.

Edited by kkhohoho on May 6th 2019 at 8:03:37 AM

The Psi-Corps have a rather authoritarian attitude when it comes to guiding and protecting their fellow telepaths. The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father and all that. They also had the teep breeding program, so probably they wanted to see if latent teeps could produce potent teeps with enough planning and perseverance.

With really low level telepaths, the Corps probably just tests them to make sure, and checks in on them occasionally. And maybe draft them into the breeding program.

Even if a telepath is so weak they can't actually do anything, their kids might not be that weak, so it's useful for the Corps to keep an eye on them.

Is that bit where Lyta Alexander gets telekinetic abilities ever brought up again? I don't think it was in the main series, but there's so much side material.